Knowing the velocity of a fluid (e.g., gas, liquid, slurry, etc.) through a fluid conveyance object (e.g., pipe, tube, etc.) is very useful in different situations. For example, a manufacturer may want to know how fast a fluid is traveling through a pipe to make sure that the fluid is being applied at a predetermined thickness. As another example, an engineer may want to know how fast and the direction that a fluid is traveling through a pipe to ensure that the pipe is structurally sufficient to withstand the velocity and amount of fluid traveling through the pipe. Additionally, knowing the velocity of the fluid can allow a person to calculate other attributes related to the fluid.
Measuring the velocity of a fluid within a fluid conveyance object may be difficult or impractical. For example, directly measuring the speed of a fluid through a pipe may be very difficult due to the necessity of reference points, multiple measurement devices, and the like. Thus, one way that velocity is measured is through an indirect measurement, for example, by measuring a differential pressure between two points within the fluid conveyance object. However, in order to accurately calculate the velocity, the pressure between the two points must be different. Accordingly, pressure meters used to measure pressure in fluid conveyance objects are typically designed so as to cause the velocity of the fluid to increase when moving around the meter.
The pressure of the fluid is measured before the fluid encounters the meter. The pressure meter then measures the pressure of the fluid at the end of the meter. In other words, the pressure of the fluid is measured at a point before the fluid encounters the meter and is then measured after the fluid has encountered the meter. The speed of the fluid has to increase in order to move around the meter, which causes a proportional drop in the pressure. Therefore, once the differential pressure has been determined, by comparing the pressure of the fluid before encountering the meter with the pressure of the fluid after encountering the fluid, the velocity of the fluid through the fluid conveyance object can be determined. Thus, the pressure meter provides a technique for indirectly measuring the velocity of the fluid in the fluid conveyance object.